Homer's epic poem following Odysseus's 10-year journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War — through encounters with the Cyclops, Circe, the Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis — the counterpart to the Iliad's heroism: the Odyssey's hero wins by cunning rather than martial excellence.
Creates the archetype of the cunning hero — Odysseus is 'polytropos' (many-turnings, resourceful) rather than the straightforwardly excellent Achilles — demonstrating that intelligence and adaptability can overcome physical force, and establishing the homecoming narrative as the model for the journey-and-return structure.
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